The US Olympic Committee is due to speak with Boston’s bid team today to re-evaluate whether they should remain the US city of choice to bid for the 2024 Olympics Games – but comments made to Host City earlier this month by the USOC’s lead advisor indicate that the choice of city is not the critical issue.

“I think the biggest challenge that any US city faces has to do with the host city agreements and being able to provide the appropriate guarantees to the IOC. It’s no secret that that’s a challenge for any US city.” USOC advisor Doug Arnot told Host City in early July.

“Being able to put together a programme that is risk-averse, that minimises and mitigates risk to the extent that it can be acceptable to fitting in state government is always going to be a challenge for any US city, not only Boston.

“Boston has responded very well to what I would call democratic pressures. They have had to take a look at their plan and make sure that it made sense from a financial perspective, from a legacy perspective – they’ve had to examine it much more carefully than a lot of bids would at this time. 

“They’ve been under the gun, it’s definitely been a challenge but they’re responding very well to the challenge.” 

Asked whether the USOC chose the right city in Boston, Arnot said: “We had four great cities to choose from. There were some very good reasons to pick Boston and there were some very good reasons that we could have gone with the other cities. We have all put our energy behind Boston and are trying to help them to continue to advance the plans.”

National Olympic Committees interested in bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games must present a city to the IOC by 15 September. 

Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome have so far been announced as bidding cities, with Toronto said to be considering applying. The Russian city of Kazan has also recently been linked to a possible bid.

The majority of Massachusetts residents support Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as long as the bid comes at no cost to the taxpayer.

This is the finding of an independent poll conducted by Sage Consulting on just over 1,600 people in the state of Massachusetts. 

While the results of the poll showed overall support for the Games bid, at 55 per cent, it also revealed that a more pronounced majority of 61 per cent are opposed to public spending on the project.

The poll also showed that more people were sceptical about the economic legacy of the Games than those who believed it would bring lasting benefit.

Majority support

The most popular response to the question “how strongly do you support or oppose the bid” was “strongly support”, with 35 per cent ticking this box. With 20 per cent saying they “somewhat support” the bid, the poll showed an overall majority of 55 per cent supporting the bid. 

Support for the bid would not necessarily translate into ticket sales, however. Just 45 per cent of respondents said they would either “definitely” or “probably” attend the Games in person. 

Economic benefit

Slightly more people believed that Games expenditure was “unlikely” to produce lasting benefit for Boston (46 per cent) than those who said this was “likely” (49 per cent). 

In answer to the question about “lasting economic benefit for Boston”, the largest group of respondents (29 per cent) said that this was “very unlikely” while 19 per cent thought it “somewhat unlikely”. 

This means 48 per cent of people thought economic benefit was unlikely, as compared to 44 per cent that deemed it to be likely. 

“Taxpayer dollars”

The strongest opinions revealed by the poll were in response to questions about the financing of bidding for and hosting the Games. 

43 per cent of respondents would “strongly oppose” the use of “taxpayer dollars” to fund the bid. Coupled with the 18 per cent who “somewhat oppose” this, the poll reveals that a clear majority of 61 per cent are opposed to public finance of the project. 

Boston’s bid is planned to be financed privately and, if successful, the bid committee has pledged that any infrastructure projects relating specifically to the Games will be entirely privately financed, However, the poll indicated that 55 per cent believe that “financial support for the Olympics will come at the expense of other worthwhile causes,” as compared with the 23 per cent who believe “most costs will be carried by business”.

Positive start

Public support for the Olympic Games is an important metric on which the bid will be evaluated and the overall support for the bid at this early stage will be seen as a positive.

A recent gathering of opponents to Boston’s bid, organised by “No Boston Olympics”, attracted little more than a hundred people. 

The US Olympic Committee has been quick off the blocks in announcing Boston as its contender for the 2024 Games, with only Rome the only confirmed competitor. 

Germany is expected to put forward either Berlin or Hamburg. A number of other cities and countries are said to be contemplating bidding, including Baku, Budapest, Doha, Istanbul, Paris and South Africa.

The Boston 2024 bid committee has appointed Richard Davey, former Massachusetts Transportation Secretary, as its new CEO. 

He succeeds Dan O’Connell, who successfully led the group that was selected as the US Olympic Committee (USOC)’s contender for the 2024 Olympic Games, against competition from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

“This is a terrific opportunity to build upon all the great work and planning that has already been done,” Davey said in a statement.

“But in many ways this is just the beginning. Over the next year we will be in every community in Boston —and in every region of the state—to get the thoughts and input of the public on what a 2024 Games would look like and the kind of legacy it could and should leave for Massachusetts.”

Davey was appointed Transportation Secretary of Massachusetts Department of Transport (MassDOT) in 2011, a position he held until stepping down in October 2014. 

Before this, he worked for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company, where he rose to the position of general manager and went on to manage the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 

The effectiveness of the city’s transport system was a central component of Boston 2024’s submission to the USOC, which highlighted the fact that most venues are within walking distance of public transport. 

Boston’s USOC submission also outlines US$5.2bn of public investment in “existing transport infrastructure” and US$10bn of public investment in “planned transport infrastructure”. 

Dan O’Connell, the outgoing leader of Boston 2024 who previously served as Housing and Economic Development Secretary for Massachusetts, will remain on the bid’s executive committee.

“Dan O’Connell was integral in making the case over the last year that Boston could host a Games that was sustainable, cost-effective, and that would leave a lasting legacy for Boston and Massachusetts,” said John Fish, chairman of Boston 2024 in a statement. 

The US Olympic Committee chose Boston on Thursday as the city that will bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, over competing offers from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. 

Boston has proposed a low-cost, regional and sustainable Games in keeping with the ideals of Olympic Agenda 2020, the new framework adopted by the IOC in December within which the bidding procedure for 2024 will operate.

The engagement of public and private stakeholders in Boston’s proposal is said to have outshone its rivals.

“One of the great things about the Boston bid was that the bid leadership and the political leadership were on the same page,” Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the US Olympic Committee told the Boston Globe. 

The White House gave a statement of presidential support for Boston, saying “The city has taught all of us what it means to be Boston Strong” – a reference to the slogan adopted by the city in the wake of the 2013 marathon bombings.

The decision was also welcomed by IOC president Thomas Bach, who said “The Boston bid will be a strong one.”

A major driver behind Agenda 2020 is change perceptions about the cost and benefit of hosting the Olympic Games. Boston proposes to spend just USD4.5bn on hosting the Games, which the bid committee says will be generated from broadcasting, sponsorship and ticketing revenues.

This figure does not include publicly funded investments in civic infrastructure, which the bid committee says the city has already committed to regardless of the Games bid. 

The cost of hosting the Games would be kept down by using existing facilities, including the multi-purpose TD Garden and a number of venues operated by colleges, such as Harvard Stadium, Boston College’s Conte Forum and Boston University’s Agganis Arena.

In a proposal reminiscent of London 2012, Boston’s Olympic stadium would be temporary, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field events.

The US last hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1996 at Atlanta. Since then the world’s biggest multisport event has been awarded to Asia/Oceania three times, Europe twice and South America once. 

The IOC does not, however, operate a policy of continental rotation and a number of factors will determine which city is selected in 2017 as the host of the 2024 Olympic Games. 

While current round of bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games has suffered from a crisis in appetite for hosting the Olympic Games, particulary in Europe, the race for 2024 is shaping up to be extremely competitive. 

Rome is the only other city so far to have confirmed it will bid for the 2024 Games, but a long list of other cities and regions are in various stages of evaluating and preparing bids. 

Baku, Budapest, Doha, Germany, Hamburg, Istanbul, Paris and South Africa are among the possible contenders. 

The selection of Boston will perhaps be something of a surprise to anyone outside the US Olympic Committee. Los Angeles, which has hosted the Olympics twice before, was the highest profile contender. Advisors to the IOC had indicated that Washington, D.C. had the strongest technical infrastructure. San Francisco is already established as one of the world’s most popular destinations for sports, business and leisure. 

Yet this is another factor behind Boston’s success: the city is new to Olympism, having never hosted or bid for an Olympic Games before. As such, it is less likely to show complacency in its bid, offering fresh pastures in an old city.

One of Boston’s biggest challenges will be garnering public support for the Games. A public meeting has been planned for Tuesday to gather feedback as the first stage of planning for the bid.